Carlos Paath – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has come under fire for reportedly getting riled by the call to prayer, or adzan, that interrupted a speech he was giving at a mosque on Monday.

Suryadharma was speaking prior to the inauguration of the newly built Bojong Koneng Grand Mosque in Tasikmalaya, West Java, when the call to prayer, a reminder for Muslims present at the mosque and those in the surrounding neighborhood to observe their dzuhur or midday prayer, was announced.

Suryadharma reportedly fell quiet and bowed his head as he waited for it to end. However, on completion of the prayer, the minister did not resume his speech and left the premises without officiating the grand opening of the mosque.

Asked by reporters why he was leaving in a rush, Suryadharma said he "shouldn't have been interrupted." "I should have been allowed to finish without being cut off by the adzan," he said as quoted by Detik.com.

Tasikmalaya district head Uu Ruzhanul Ulum subsequently offered his apologies to the minister over the incident. "The minister was angry and he let all of us know," he said on Monday as quoted by Detik.com.

Ace Hasan Syadzily, a Golkar legislator from the House of Representatives' Commission VIII, overseeing religious affairs, said he was thunderstruck by the news. He said there was no forbidding the adzan from resounding whenever the time for prayer came.

"It is our duty as Muslims to stop all our activities and listen to the call for prayer. This means we are supposed to adjust things to the adzan," he said.

The Golkar deputy secretary general added that Suryadharma should not have been disappointed by the adzan. "He should have listened to it solemnly instead of publicly expressing his disappointment," Ace said.

The United Development Party (PPP) denied that Suryadharma, its chairman, had been riled by the call to prayer. PPP legislator Ahmad Yani said the reaction to the incident was nothing more than a misunderstanding.

"He was not throwing a fit. He immediately left the venue because he had other things on his schedule," Yani claimed. He added it was common for meetings at the party or at the House to be cut off by the adzan, upon which all activities were required to be put on hold until after the prayers had been held. "That was all just a miscommunication with the organizers," Yani said. "He was giving his speech and when the adzan sounded, he stopped."

Suryadharma's reaction to being cut off by the call to prayer comes in stark contrast to his standing as a staunch defender of conservative Islam who has even been touted by a hard-line group, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), as a potential presidential candidate in 2014.